The Excuse of Ignorance Explained | Shaykh Salih al-Luhaydan

1,455 views·Dec 19, 2025

🎥📖 In this fatwa, Shaykh Salih al-Luhaydan (d. 1439H) explains the ruling on the excuse of ignorance in Islam and clarifies its correct understanding according to Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama‘ah. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ The Murji’ah fail to distinguish between the outward ruling and the inward ruling. When they witness clear and manifest acts of shirk or kufr, they excuse the person outwardly by claiming that inward kufr must first be established, such as denial (juhood). - Denial (juhood) means that a person is informed of the truth and then persists upon rejection. Because the Murji’ah restrict kufr to denial alone, they falsely condition the outward ruling upon a person “knowing first” or having “the proof established,” arguing that one cannot deny what he does not know. As a result, they restrict outward kufr to denial, rather than to clear statements and actions. ⚠️ Conditioning inward denial for the outward ruling directly opposes the aqeedah of Ahl al-Sunnah. Ahl al-Sunnah affirm that iman consists of statements and actions, and that worldly rulings are based on what is outwardly apparent, not on matters of the heart. ✍️ STATEMENT: Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852H) in Fath al-Bari (12/272), transmitting consensus: وكلهم أجمعوا على أن أحكام الدنيا على الظاهر، والله يتولى السرائر “THEY ALL UNANIMOUSLY AGREED that worldly rulings are based upon what is outwardly apparent, while Allah alone takes charge of what lies within.” End Quote ✅ Ahl al-Sunnah clearly distinguish between outward and inward rulings. Outwardly, a person is judged by his statements and actions. If he commits shirk or kufr openly, he is ruled outwardly according to that clear evidence, while his final affair is left to Allah. ✍️ STATEMENT: Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728H) said in As-Sarim al-Maslul (2/339): فمن قال أو فعل ما هو كفر, كفر بذلك، وإن لم يقصد أن يكون كافرًا، إذ لا بقصد الكفر أحدّ إلًّا ما شاء الله. “Whoever says or does that which is kufr, then he becomes a kafir by that itself, even if he did not intend to become a disbeliever, for no one intends kufr except whom Allah wills.” End Quote (❗) Coercion, mistakes, ignorance, and misunderstanding relate only to the inward reality of the heart. They have no role in the outward ruling, and are only considered by a judge before applying hudud, or by Allah on the Day of Judgment. ✍️ STATEMENT: Shaykh Salih Aal al-Sheikh said: وأما الجهل الذي يكون لأجل عدم وجود من يُنَبِّه، فإنه يُعذَر به حُكمًا في الآخرة حتى يأتي من يُقيم عليه الحُجَّة، ولا يُعذَر به في أحكام الدنيا. “As for ignorance that occurs due to the absence of someone who can make the person aware, then he is excused for it in the ruling of the Hereafter until the proof is established against him. However, he is not excused by it in the rulings of this worldly life.” End Quote 📚 Source: Explanation of Kashf al-Shubuhat, p. 143 ❌ The Murji’ah reject this distinction. They falsely claim that statements and actions are insufficient for outward rulings unless inward denial is proven. According to this false belief, even those who insult the Prophet ﷺ, mock the religion, or worship false gods would remain Muslims unless denial is established. This is clearly false, as such actions are from the nullifiers of Islam. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Authentic and True — From the Scholars to You ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Islam #Quran #IslamicKnowledge #IslamicLecture #IslamicReminder #IslamicVideo #QuranExplanation #Tafsir #SurahYunus #QuranVerses #IslamicScholar #Salafi #AhlusSunnah #SunniIslam #ShaykhIbnUthaymeen #IbnUthaymeen #IslamicRefutation #RefutingMisconceptions #IslamicBeliefs #Aqeedah #Tawheed #IslamicCreed #LearnIslam #IslamicEducation #QuranAndSunnah #IslamicClips #IslamicShorts #Dawah #Muslim #MuslimYouth #MuslimCommunity #IslamicTeaching #IslamAnswers #IslamClarified #IslamicTruth #Salaf #aqeedah #kufr #sunnah #tawhid #saudiarabia #saudi